1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the game of golf, specifically to a putting training aid designed to teach golfers the proper speed for which a correctly struck putt is hit, alignment and visual focus while practicing the most important aspect of the game of golf, putting.
2. Description of Prior Art
Golf is a difficult and challenging game for which many inventors have created training aids to help golfers develop different aspects of the game. To be proficient at the game and its many different shots and techniques, training aids have been developed to teach proper form, alignment and method of striking a golf ball.
Putting is the most important and difficult part of the game, accounting for half the strokes (36) in a par round (72), with two putts per hole and eighteen holes per round.
Putting is a great test of skill and requires regular, high quality practice sessions with a device that visually represents an actual hole as realistically as possible and has the same “action” as a real hole with the golf ball being able to roll around the rim of the target and wither stay in the target or rime around and out of the target. Golfers typically practice putting wherever they can find a suitable surface either outdoors or indoors. In many cases, a carpeted surface indoors must suffice for practicing putting for reasons of inclement weather, time constraints or convenience. In these and similar cases, the golfer has a need for a three dimensional representation of the hole in the form of a putting target that provides direct feedback on both the line and speed for which a properly struck putt is hit.
For many years it has been widely known that a properly struck putt should roll approximately seventeen inches past the hole if the hole was not there. The definition is based on the research of Dave Pelz, a professional golf teacher and Ex-NASA Physicist who authored the book entitled “Putt Like The Pro's,” published by HarperPerenial in 1991. This distance is approximate, depending on specific grass types and environmental conditions. It may vary either shorter or longer; however the seventeen-inch dimension is the best distance for overall conditions.
An actual hole on a putting green is bored into the ground by a special tool with a depth indicator to a measured distance. A white plastic cup is then inserted into the hole approximately ¼ inch below the surface of the green. This leaves a ring of rich black topsoil directly below the surface of the green and directly above the white plastic insert. When visualizing a hole on a putting green, one sees the front half of the hole as being green and the back half of the hole as being a black ¼ inch band approximately 180 degrees around and beneath the surface. As a rule, many people aim at this black line at the back of the hole as a reference target while putting.
Heretofore, many inventors have created conventional practice putting targets or training devices which attempt to simulate a hole but lack the ability to visually represent an actual hole on a putting green in three dimensions and also lack the utility to distinguish between a correctly or incorrectly struck putt. Some devices reduce the diameter of the hole in an attempt to refine the accuracy of the line for which a putt must be hit, while others are mechanically or electrically complicated, visually unrealistic and expensive to manufacture.
The emphasis on the need to visually represent a hole as it actually looks is extremely important. This point was exemplified by the granting of Peabody et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,583, which is a plastic coated photograph depicting an actual hole from eye level taken ten feet away. This patent clearly shows a black ring at the back of the hole and green front surface. The object of this design was to putt the golf ball over the photograph hole but there is no mechanism of indicating if the golf ball was stuck with the correct force or with insufficient or excess force.
Kehoe U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,560 took this depiction of a hole to the next level with a thin, flexible, six inch in diameter disk with a four-inch representation of a hole. He then has an adhesive back material line that is placed behind the target seventeen inches and perpendicular to the putting line. The object being to teach the golfer to strike a golf ball with the correct force by having the putt roll through the center of the target and have it come to rest on the line. This target is an unrealistic representation and does not depict what a real hole looks like in three dimensions. It lacks the main gratification of golf, to putt a golf ball into a hole and has no “action” characteristics like rimming around as with a real hole.
Another example of a conventional putting target is Mueller et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,808. This design defines a large number of putting targets available on the market consisting of a putting ring with a sloped outer diameter to “allow ease of entry into the target”. The inner diameter is perpendicular to the putting surface and is designed to “retain on line putts even if they are struck with excess force”. This design does not have the utility to distinguish between a putt struck with excess force and a putt struck with insufficient force. These targets are also visually unrealistic and do not depict a three-dimensional hole as on an actual putting green.
Dimanno et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,404 takes this conventional design one step further by making his target symmetrical with two sloped surfaces connecting the inner diameter to the outer diameter of the target. This target is created to be tossable, but still is designed to allow ease of entry of a golf ball into the target and retention of the golf ball even if the putt is stuck with excess force and has no means for distinguishing a correctly struck putt from an incorrectly struck putt. He also has no means of visually representing the target in three dimensions by correctly depicting a real hole.
Moreover, the prior art taken as a whole, vast as it is, neither teaches nor suggests a device that captures a golf ball within the target when stroked with the correct tempo and ensuing force, while preventing putts stroked with too slow a tempo and insufficient ensuing force from entering the target and allowing putts stroked with too fast a tempo and excessive ensuing force to roll through the target. Also, none of the targets found in the prior art provide a visually realistic three-dimensional representation of a real hole on a putting green. These and other functional utilities will be apparent upon studying the description of the invention.